IRELAND’S TRIPLE-major champion Pádraig Harrington confessed yesterday that he found the French celebration of the goal in Wednesday night’s World Cup match in Paris as “particularly galling” and emphasised the “different culture” that exists in golf and soccer.
The Dubliner, competing in the Dubai World Championship, was unable to watch the match live on television because of the time difference (it would have meant staying up until after 3am in the Gulf state) but made a point of going to the course early so that he could watch highlights of the qualifier before commencing his first round.
“The great thing in golf is if we do something wrong, we hold our hand up and say, ‘hold on a second, I didn’t mean to do that’ and you go back and you take your penalty (shots), which is obviously very reasonable. But in their case. The celebrations were pretty hard to look at (the French knowing about the handball).
“In golf, you’re told from a young age about self policing the rules. I’ve called numerous shots on myself over the years . . . (in soccer), they do have referees and, maybe in a game, it is what you can get away with. It’s a different culture.”
One such occasion that Harrington called shots on himself was in the first round of the Volvo Masters at Valderrama in 2002 when he marked his ball on what he thought was the first green only to realise his ball was on the fringe and not on the putting surface.
The previous year, he was leading the Benson and Hedges International at The Belfry heading into the final round only for it to be discovered that he hadn’t signed his card in the first round and he graciously accepted his disqualification.
Other incidents in recent years of players calling themselves to task came on the US Tour. In 2007, Mark Wilson gave himself a two stroke penalty in the Honda Classic after learning that his caddie had unwittingly given information on club selection to Camilo Villegas (Wilson actually went on to win the tournament in a play-off). And, in the 2008 US Tour qualifying school, JP Hayes disqualified himself after realising he had played a prototype ball at one stage during his round.
